"mega data mega kaka" --A digital documentary of social, political, and cultural events. Commentary in the form of irony, lampoon, and diatribe.
"If it's not just people themselves, but their fathers and grandfathers and pretty well all past generations that have been led astray, it's not easy to root out their mistaken opinions today, however strong one's arguments" - Seneca

Monday, August 07, 2006

Moral sentiments are generally beside the point in war and politics. Developing a theory or even marshalling mral values in time of war becomes a matter of degree. ...

What I am thinking of relates to films like War of the Worlds, for example. How far would you go in protecting your children or your family?

Be that as it may for now, calling terrorists names and laying ethical blame at their feet--while often looking away from the morality of our actions--and calling them cowards is often beside the point.

But to call terrorists cowards--by what measure do you make this judgment. the following quote provides some criteria for a possible answer. That is, like Socrates in his definition of courage, it's not just pure balls that make you brave but a knowing what to fear and what not to fear--how and when to fight.

"Terrorists are cowards," one Army sergeant told me in Iraq last year. "And they can't shoot worth @$%#!," he added.

Through all the troubles in Iraq, the U.S. military has taken some comfort in its absolute tactical superiority to insurgent forces. In a stand-up fight, U.S. troops always win.

But what if that changed?

Indications are that Hezbollah has achieved the unthinkable. It has combined the elusiveness and agility of a terrorist group with the fighting prowess of a modern army, according to The New York Times:

[i]Hezbollah is a militia trained like an army and equipped like a state, and its fighters “are nothing like Hamas or the Palestinians,” said a soldier who just returned from Lebanon. “They are trained and highly qualified,” he said, equipped with flak jackets, night-vision goggles, good communications and sometimes Israeli uniforms and ammunition. “All of us were kind of surprised.”[/i]